Hello, again. I am fresh back from vacation where I successfully shut off my brain for several days in a row.
We’re all expected to do too much all of the time, and sometimes vacation is no different. Here in the American wasteland no one gets enough time off, so I am guilty as anyone of trying to cram a million things into each vacation in order to see and do as much as possible considering the time and money spent. This vacation to Jackson, NH was a welcome slower-pace than usual.
I still crammed in a lot of adventure into the itinerary, but also left a lot of room for downtime. Jake and I even decided to delete a few things on-the-go in favor of more rest or a slower-pace. The theme of the week was ‘chasing-waterfalls.’ We saw nine distinct waterfalls in total. Some where a short drive, and others required a half-day of hiking.
Jackson, NH has a small walkable village at it’s center which is only a short trek from it’s own set of spectacular falls. We were very fortunate to stay with some family friends in their guest-barn and enjoy home-cooked meals and board-games most evenings. Having that one home-base, early dinners, and quiet evenings was particularly restful and different for us; we’re used to packing our evenings full of activities to counteract the workday.
On the first day of hiking we saw Thompson Falls, Crystal Cascades, and Glen-Ellis Falls. This amazing stone staircase which led to the falls was a wonderful reminder of what a little money for public lands can do.
Day two of hiking was a hike to Arethusa falls, possibly the most breath-taking falls I’ve ever hiked to. We took a longer route up, detouring to Bemis Brook trail which added three more waterfalls to the day!! The climb back up to the Arethusa trail was nearly vertical, but there were plenty of roots and rocks for a good scramble.
We got really lucky with weather! Because we were after the snow melted but before the summer season truly began, we avoided bugs and crowds but still had really lucky weather. It’s been a very rainy spring in the North East, but we were fortunate to score the only 4-day-dry-stretch in months. We did encounter bugs on an excursion into Maine, but it was short-lived.
The lack of crowds allowed us to travel in and out of North Conway freely to experience the shopping and dining, which is something I’ve never done before because usually it’s so clogged with people. We scored easy parking at Diana’s Baths, another local waterfall attraction.
I booked us a little spa afternoon at a local Inn with the off-season availability and we spent a whole afternoon sleeping on a beach at a local lake! I’ll have another post up soon of the painting I did while there.
Before heading home we shopped local and I bought this very cute hand-thrown mug from by a local potter. I love the way it feels to hold, but sadly it’s too tall for my tiny microwave! I’ll have to heat water in a kettle like a civilized person…
